Trained as a mathematician, Barcelona-based Colombian artist Santiago Ortiz brings together his scientific background and exploration of new technologies to develop a poetic yet politically engaged internet-related practice. Interested in computer programming as an extension of literary writing, many of his projects possess a discursive dimension. This is the case in his well-know ongoing project, 'Spheres,' in which a growing community of users produces both a realistic and allegorical narrative--either in English, Spanish, or Portuguese--by pairing, often in an arbitrary way, 122 different words. Other pieces involving language are 'Edgardo’s Brain (The Inventor of Stories),' in which text is generated through a random algorithm, as well as 'Argentinean bacteria,' in which the artist has created a trophic net--a system where organisms feed on each other--by exploring the textual configuration of 'Edgardo’s Brain (The Inventor of Stories),' as the text operates as a genetic code, defining the characteristics of entities and rearranging them each time one entity is eaten by other. Recently, Ortiz has considered another of his interests, the structures of knowledge within the digital realm, by elegantly addressing the popular social bookmarking website del.icio.us in works such as 'NeuroZappingFolks.' According to the artist, 'NeuroZappingFolks' consists of a non-linear zapping through del.icio.us accounts (...) simulating a frantic navigation through the web.' Currently, he is developing an application that allows the visualization of the relations established between tags and bundles in del.icio.us accounts connected to 6pli, thus continuing his examination of the multiple identities of the internet, that evolve on a daily basis through the massive upload of information by individuals and organizations. ‐ Miguel Amado

Jen Boyd spends her free time collecting microscopic recordings of trees, plants, and other audible organic matter; and creating layered compositions in real-time with the use of a portable mixer. She captures natural sounds as they unfold. Working with contact microphones and a flash recorder, Boyd constructs stereo soundscapes to give depth to the delicate sounds of trees and plants alike. She has a BFA in music technology from CalArts and is currently working on her masters in electronic music at Mills College. While at Mills, Boyd plans to explore the depths of natural sound and their presentation as art in the form of live performance and sound installations. Jen is currently exploring various means of releasing her recorded works of natural sounds and plans to continue to build an archive of phonographies and contact recordings.

Dynamic Abstraction, the beauty of randomness by Joshua Davis - Joshua Davis said in a Wired interview: “Pollock showed that there was beauty in randomness“. But if Pollock argued that the process of abstraction, not the end result, is what is dynamic (in his case a static painting), Joshua Davis’ work is never static: the painting is never the same. The compositions are beautifully software generated. ‘Dynamic’ and ‘Abstraction’ are in fact the two words that define the process he uses. Dynamic because of the programming property of outputting an endless array of compositions. Abstraction is defining multiple meanings in the process itself. As Joshua points out: “I was abstracting the act or process of being a designer and doing design, but also my personal visual aesthetic is rooted in abstraction“. Dynamic Abstraction is a website that collects the ideas presented and the files produced in workshops Davis teaches around the world. Here the source files are released and the code explained. There are even instructions for ripping the .swf files for print. The print option includes a sort of contradiction. While Davis believes that his creativity is in the code behind his artwork, museums and collectors still emphasize the print. As John Maeda puts it, this might be due to the fact that no one wants to play the maintenance man or service technician role ad infinitum. Freezing in print the generative code visual representation is on a certain extent quite contradictory: the work wants to ‘live’ in the running machine. Dynamic Abstraction interacts with both the generative aesthetics and the designing processes. It shows how generative strategies can be used to create dynamic systems with aesthetic parameters. At the same time proves that a computational approach to design changes static objects into dynamic processes. Plus it has the collaborative ...

The Medical Museion has invited the sound artist Jacob Kirkegaard to create a new work, which will focus on the problematic arising in Art and Biomedicine: Beyond the body. Kirkegaard has turned his listening ear inwards -- to his own ear -- and by using specially developed listening equipment, he has captured the micro activity which the hair cells of the ear broadcasts. Listen to some of his music here.

Jeremy Blake, an up-and-coming artist who sought to bridge the worlds of painting and film in lush, color-saturated, hallucinatory digital video works, has died, the New York City Police said yesterday. He was 35 and lived in the East Village in Manhattan.

an infographically-inspired exhibition at the Tate Modern addressing the major issues facing todayÃ¢ï¿½ï¿½s cities, such as size, speed, form, density & diversity. the exhibition draws on data originally assembled for the 10th International Architecture Exhibition at the 2006 Venice Biennale. the show presents films, videos & photographs by more than 20 artists and architects to offer subjective & intimate interpretations of urban conditions in all 10 cities.

wooden models created from data compiled by the LSE represent the population density in London, Mexico City, Mumbai & Cairo. clear information graphics are complemented by bold typographic statements. the restrained graphic language communicates key facts that add context to the artwork on display.

Australian Network for Art and Technology (ANAT) are holding a series of FREE public forums as part of still/open Program :: Melbourne 6pm, 5th September 2007 @ Digital Harbour :: Perth 6pm, 10th September 2007 @ The Bakery ARTRAGE Complex :: Brisbane 6pm, 14th September @ The Judith Wright Centre.

The forums will explore recent projects by internationally renown guest thinkers: Alessandro Ludovico (Italy) a publisher, media artist and editor in chief of Neural, Andy Nicholson (Australia) a free software hacker, new media activist and part of the Engage Media collective and Beatriz da Costa (USA) an interdisciplinary artist and researcher who works with open science. Creative Commons Australia will open the floor for discussion of Open Source Culture.

Open Source Culture is the growing global phenomenon of creative practices of sharing content for others to rework, reuse and redistribute. It has created a digital collective media culture and cult like following where everyone from teenagers to grannies are getting involved. It has moved from the programming sphere into the general and business communities; the purchase of YouTube for $1.65 billion and MySpace for $580 million by News Corp. and Google highlight just how much value they can have.

Open Source Culture aims to empower the user and challenge the power of the media giants. Currently a conflict is occurring between the owners of online “user generated” infrastructures and those who use them. User submitted and generated content often is moderated by the site or organization it is uploaded to, giving absolute control to the powers that be to do as they wish with the content submitted. By its nature Open Source Culture brings up many opinions and questions including; how open is Open Source Culture? Is it user friendly or financially beneficial to the big players? How might artists make use this cultural ...

The Public Sound Project is a series of collaborative interventions that begin in the workshop and end on the street. Through a series of workshops, participants work collaboratively to create simple sonic experiments and interventions to take place in public space.

For Thinking Metropolis Lab, Glowlab collaborating artist Jessica Thompson will present a Public Sound Project workshop based on a previous event in 2005 as part of the exhibition Glowlab: Open Lab at Art Interactive, in Cambridge, MA. During the show, she facilitated a popular and engaging workshop where participants constructed bicycle-mounted noisemakers made of contact microphones, playing cards, and mini amplifiers. The participants then mounted the devices to their bicycles and joined Thompson in a mobile sound performance.

For Thinking Metropolis Lab, Thompson will teach participants to build devices for their own bicycles and then lead them in a group ride in the surrounding neighbourhood to explore the area and activate the space with sound.

About the Artist

Jessica Thompson is a Canadian new media artist. Her mobile sound pieces explore sound pieces parallels between physical location, psychological space, game playing and public performance within urban environment.

About Glowlab

Glowlab produces and presents experimental art and technology exploring the nature of cities. Founded in 2002 as an independent curatorial project of Brooklyn-based artist and curator Christina Ray, we track emerging approaches to psychogeography, the creative investigation of the physical and psychological landscape of cities [....]